Sun Java System Portal Server 6 2004Q2 product is a suite of integrated software products that allow enterprises to pull content from a variety of sources, personalize the content for a specific user or group of users, and aggregate content from these multiple sources into a single output format suitable for the specific user’s device, such as a web browser.

This chapter provides basic information about the architecture of the product suite, the end user interface to the portal, the services implemented by the Portal Server software and how the are configured, and the tools used to administer the product. This chapter contains the following sections:

Architecture Overview

Portal Server is part of the Sun Java System architecture. Within the Sun Java System architecture, the Portal Server provides technologies that locate, connect, aggregate, present, communicate, personalize, notify, and deliver content. The content within Sun Java System is provided by web services. Portal Server does not provide web services itself. Rather, it is the mechanism by which a user interface is associated with web services and by which web services are made useful to people.

The Portal Server product architecture consists of a variety of integratablesoftware products.This allows the Portal Server to leverage functions and services from its internal components as well as external supporting products. The Portal Server itself includes the following internal components: Desktop, NetMail, Rewriter, and Search. External supporting products include the Sun Java System Web Server, the Sun Java System Directory Server, and Sun Java System Identity Server (formerly Sun ONE Identity Server). The Portal Server implements the web application container, user, service, and policy management, authentication and single sign-on, administration console, directory schema and data storage, and protocol support from these external products rather than implementing them in the Portal Server product itself. For example, the Portal Server product uses the Sun Java System Web Server as its default web container.

In addition, other Portal Server add-on software can be installed as well (for example, Sun Java System Portal Server, Secure Remote Access ). Refer to the Sun Java System Portal Server 6 2004Q2 Deployment Guide for more information on the Sun Java System Portal Server architecture.

Portal Access Overview

Users typically access portal content through a web browser by requesting the URL for the portal’s home page and authenticating through the Sun Java System Identity Server authentication service. Once authenticated, users are directed to the Sun Java System Portal Server Desktop.

Figure 1-1 shows a sample Desktop from the Sun Java System Portal Server.

Figure 1-1 Sun Java System Portal Server Sample Desktop

The Desktop is the primary interface for the user to portal content. The Desktop service is implemented through a servlet, provider APIs, various channels, and various other support APIs and utilities. The Desktop uses programmatic entities called providers to generate content. A single unit of content is called a channel. Multiple channels of content can be aggregated together into container channels and arranged in a variety of formats such as tables or tabs on the Desktop. When a user accesses the portal, the Desktop references a display profile which stores content provider and channel data used to generate the user’s content. As confusing as it may sound, the display profile does not actually define the overall layout, display, or organization of what users see on their Desktops. Fundamentally, the display profile exists only to provide property values for channels. Actually, the Desktop uses multiple display profiles stored as LDAP attributes at various levels or nodes in the Sun Java System Directory Server (top-most, organization, role, and user levels) to determine the content for a user. XML documents are used to define the display profile properties for each level and upload the property values into the LDAP node. At runtime, a user’s display profile is created by merging the display profile properties defined at each level. Although a display profile document can be defined at each level, you do not need to have a display profile document at each level.

To extend support to store and retrieve specific property values based on a given client type (such as HTML or MAPI), the Portal Server software includes:

Service Configuration Overview

The Sun Java System Portal Server is a Sun Java Enterprise System application and, as such, its services are defined and managed using the Sun Java System Identity Server Service Management System (SMS). Service-related data that is not server-specific is defined using an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file that adheres to an SMS Document Type Definition (DTD). Server-specific data can be stored in properties files that are local to the specific server. Each Sun Java System Portal Server service (Desktop, Netmail, Rewriter, and Search) has its own XML and properties files for presenting and modifying service specific data.

Sun Java System Identity Server Services

As explained in Architecture Overview, the Sun Java System Portal Server implements many functions and services using supporting products from the Sun Java System architecture that are external to the Sun Java System Portal Server itself. In particular, while previous versions of the Portal Server implemented many administrative capabilities internally, integration with the Sun Java System Identity Server allows the Sun Java System Portal Server to leverage the following administrative tools and services from the Sun Java System Identity Server product:

Sun Java System Portal Server Services

In addition to the standard Sun Java System Identity Server services, the Sun Java System Portal Server uses the Sun Java System Identity Server administration console to administer its internal services (Desktop, NetMail, Rewriter, and Search).

Desktop

As stated in the previous section, the Desktop provides the primary end-user interface for Sun Java System Portal Server. The Desktop is the mechanism for extensible content aggregation through the Provider Application Programming Interface (PAPI). The Desktop includes a variety of providers that enable container hierarchy and the basic building blocks for building some types of channels. For storing content provider and channel data, the Desktop implements a display profile data storage mechanism on top of an Sun Java System Identity Server service. You can edit the display profile and other Desktop service data through the administration console. Refer to Chapter 5, "Administering the Portal Desktop Service" and Chapter 7, "Administering the Display Profile" for information on administering the Desktop and the display profile.

Rewriter

The Rewriter provides a Java class library for rewriting URL references in various web languages such as HTML, JavaScript, and WML, and in HTTP Location headers (redirections). The Rewriter defines an Sun Java System Identity Server service for storing rules that define how rewriting is to be done and the data to be rewritten. You can edit Rewriter rules through the administration console. Refer to Chapter 9, "Administering the Rewriter Service" for information on administering Rewriter.

Search Engine

The Search Engine service provides basic and advanced search and browse channels for the Desktop. It uses a robot to create resource descriptions for documents that are available in the intranet, and stores these resource descriptions in an indexed database. Resource descriptions (RDs) can also be imported from another server or from a backup SOIF (Summary Object Interchange Format) file. The Search Engine includes Java and C APIs for submitting resource descriptions and for searching the database. The Search Engine database can also be used for storing other, arbitrary content, for example, a shared content cache for other content providers. You can edit Search Engine service data through the administration console. Refer to Chapter 10, "Administering the Search Engine Service" for information on administering Search.

NetMail

The NetMail service implements the NetMail (Java) and NetMail Lite email clients. These clients work with standard IMAP and SMTP servers. You can edit NetMail service data through the administration console. Refer to Chapter 8, "Administering the NetMail Service" for information on administering NetMail.

Configuration Mechanisms for Sun Java System Portal Server Services

The Sun Java System Portal Server uses a variety of configuration mechanisms to define, store and manage its services. This section contains five tables listing the configuration mechanisms used by each of the Sun Java System Portal Server internal services.

Table 1-1 lists the configuration mechanisms for the Desktop service. The table is divided into two columns: Configuration Mechanism and Description. Configuration Mechanism lists the mechanisms and Description describes the purpose of the mechanism.

Table 1-2 lists the configuration mechanisms for the Search service.The table is divided into two columns: Configuration Mechanism and Description. Configuration Mechanism lists the mechanisms and Description describes the purpose of the mechanism.

Table 1-3 lists the configuration mechanisms for the Rewriter service.The table is divided into two columns: Configuration Mechanism and Description. Configuration Mechanism lists the mechanisms and Description describes the purpose of the mechanism.

Table 1-4 lists the configuration mechanisms for the NetMail service.The table is divided into two columns: Configuration Mechanism and Description. Configuration Mechanism lists the mechanisms and Description describes the purpose of the mechanism.

Administration Overview

This section provides an overview of administering Sun Java System Portal Server, both from the Sun Java System Identity Server console and the command line.

Using the Sun Java System Identity Server Console

You administer Sun Java System Portal Server and Sun Java System Identity Server services through the HTML-based administration console provided by the Sun Java System Identity Server. Sun Java System Portal Server adds administration modules for Sun Java System Portal Server-specific services to extend the Sun Java System Identity Server console. See the individual chapters in this guide for information on the actual tasks you perform using the console.

The Sun Java System Identity Server console is divided into three sections: the location pane, the navigation pane and the data pane. Using all three panes, the administrator can navigate the directory, perform user and service configurations, and create policies. Figure 1-2 shows the administration console.

Figure 1-2 Sun Java System Identity Server Administration Console

Location Pane

The location pane runs along the top of the console. The uppermost View menu allows the administrator to switch between the four different management views:

Identity Management

Service Configuration

Current Session

Federation Management

The Welcome field displays the name of the user that is currently running the console with a link to their user profile.

The Help link opens a browser window containing an HTML version of Appendixes C, D, E, and F of this documentation, the Attribute Reference Guide.

The Logout link enables the user to log out of the Sun Java System Identity Server console.

Navigation Pane

The navigation pane is the left portion of the console. The Directory Object portion is at the top of the pane and displays the name of the directory object that is currently open and its Properties link. The Show menu lists the directories under the selected directory object. Depending on the number of sub-directories, a paging mechanism is provided.

Data Pane

The data pane is the right portion of the console. Object attributes and their values are displayed and configured here. Entries are selected for their respective group, role or organization in this pane.

Using Command-Line Utilities

The Sun Java System Portal Server command-line interface consists of utilities provided by the Sun Java System Identity Server and Sun Java System Portal Server.

See Chapter 21, "Command-Line Utilities" for a complete list and syntax of Sun Java System Portal Server command-line utilities. Refer to the Sun Java System Identity Server product documentation for information on its command-line utilities